Sporting Lisbon hosts Manchester City on Tuesday night, in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16. This is the first leg of their matchup and the opening of the knockout stage. For many pro football players, such games are always the hardest, which is why Pep Guardiola called his players to be fully focused and prepared for the visit to Lisbon. Sporting had one very tough and exhausting battle in the domestic championship against Porto on the road. We saw everything in that event that eventually finished with clashes on the field after the final whistle.
Preview
Sporting Lisbon (+1100) played 2-2 at Dragao, even though they had a player fewer throughout the entire event. They managed to endure more than 50 minutes of play in the second half with 10 guys on the pitch. This was the fifth straight event for the Lions without a defeat and the eighth in the past ten with over 2.5 scores.
Their offense is working well, and Sporting usually scores twice or more in recent times. Only in one game over the last 10, we haven’t seen Ruben Amorim’s unit doing that. On the other side, the defense allows too many goals as well, and that is the cost of the offensive-minded approach the Lions have on the pitch.
Seven of those ten events saw them conceding, but usually, the attackers managed to cover up that. As you can guess, it is pleasant to watch Sporting, because their matches are always filled with excitement.
Manchester City (-330) is also fun to watch, especially since mid-December, once they accelerated in the English Premier League. Since then, the Citizens have played 10 games, winning nine and having one draw.
In eight of them, Guardiola’s machinery scored at least twice, and on five occasions they packed four or more scores in the rival’s net. This data petty much says enough about City’s current form.
When looking at the games on the road, the impression is the same. City has five wins and one draw in the previous six, and three of them were with clean sheets. The most recent was on Saturday, once they trashed Norwich, 0-4.
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Pedro Goncalves won’t play for the hosts and he is the sole player unavailable for Amorim.
On the other side, the Citizens have four suspended or injured players. Jack Grealish is one of them while Gabriel Jesus probably won’t recover until Tuesday. Meanwhile, Mendy and Walker are both suspended for this event.
Head to Head Games
The last time Sporting and City met was in 2012, in the Europa League, once the Lions eliminated the Citizens in the knockout stage. The first game in Lisbon ended 1-0 for the hosts, while the rematch saw Man City’s 3-2 win, which wasn’t enough for the quarterfinals.
Prediction
Since Sporting has a weak defense, it would be very good to bet on Manchester City’s scoring here. Our first pick is that the guests score on both halves, with the odds on that +100. It is in our opinion the best possible bet for this event, when considering the profits.
Pick: City to score in both halves +100
Here are the previews for other UEFA Champions League games:
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
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Email: nikola@wagerbop.com
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